Bhubaneswar, July 4: The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has submitted a proposal, according to which, people giving their land for the proposed South City Satellite Township on the city outskirts would get a developed piece of land apart from some monetary relief.

In the normal land acquisition process, owner of the land becomes landless. “This new method will not only help the owners, but also ensure that there is a return for their contribution. The land owners will get plots or developed things such as, shops or other set up, near the site to ensure monthly return,” said vice-chairman of the development authority Deoranjan Kumar Singh.

“In fact, we are going to implement the proposal imbibing the best of the traditional acquisition process and from the model adopted by one Magarpatta township near Pune. The farmland owners have formed a company there to provide infrastructure facilities to real estate developers, IT biggies and commercial complexes with regular monthly return from the shares of their individual land ownership. Regarding proposal for the South City project, the return will come as another piece of developed land or a real estate property, which will provide ensured returns just like the Magarpatta township,” Singh said.

The self-sufficient integrated township of South City on an area of 1,200 acres will be a model urban settlement where the development authority has so far acquired 100 acres. The state government has started acquiring more land and, for this, the revenue department published an advertisement on July 2 to get an area of 190.83 acres from Jagasara mouza under Jatni police limits in Khurda district.

According to the authority sources, while the Tata Consulting Engineers is the agency to make the master plan for the integrated township, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (an infrastructure development company) is the transaction manager for the process of the development.

“South City will get land from seven different mouzas. Jagasara will have the largest share with 579.56 acres. Madanpur to have 204.44 acres, Kaimatia 73.21 acres, Paikrapur 317.98 acres, Kaimatiapatna 3.01 acres, Bidyadharpur 7.01 acres and Jagasarapatna 1.17 acres and after completion there will be 20,000 affordable houses for one lakh population. The township will have 20 to 30 per cent houses reserved for the economically weaker sections, the lower and the middle income groups having at least 10 per cent share each for their categories. Even there might be an increase in the percentage of houses earmarked for the middle class as per the demand pattern,” a senior officer of the authority said.

Apart from the unique rehabilitation and resettlement (RoR) proposal, the development authority is also mulling a plan to undertake a pilot project as prescribed under the Town Planning Schemes under Chapter VI of the Orissa Development Act (ODA), 1982. According to the plan, no one will lose anything owing to development activities. Rather the area has to bear the burden and by shrinking the land areas from the individual ownership, land will be reclaimed for infrastructure such as, roads. The scheme is popular in state such as, Gujarat. However, despite being with the OD Act, the scheme is yet to get a kickstart in the state.

“In reality, from an area of say 300 acres of a development project, 40 to 50 per cent go for infrastructure needs. However, with the infrastructure, if we want to lay road in an area as per the traditional land acquisition practice in which one loses his land in exchange of money, another land owner gets a 10 times hike of his land price when the new road passes by his plot. In the scheme, after earmarking the land for infrastructure every land owner donates a small portion from his land and all the plots get rescheduled once again, so that no one is displaced from the project,” said Singh.

Though the place has not been identified, the pilot project is likely to start on the city outskirts, as the rescheduling of land is possible there. Rescheduling of land is not possible in the core city area where the construction activity is already at its peak and there is no scope to change the concrete structures.

Thiruvananthapuram,Jul 10 (PTI): The Centre has asked five City Corporations in Kerala to prepare Detailed Project Reports for slum-free urban development plans and submit them immediately to implement schemes under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for tackling problems of slum-dwellers and urban poor. The direction in this regard issued by Joint secretary, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Aruna Sundarajan, after assessing the progress made by the State in rolling out RAY in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur and Kozhikode. The women's empowerment and Self Help group Kudumbashree Mission is the nodal agency for executing the project in the State. The DPR had been asked to cover such aspects as mapping of existing slums, assessment of growth of the cities with a 20-year perspective, legislative and administrative changes required for urban land expansion, changes proposed in the town planning regulations, a Kudumbashree release said today. A total of Rs 5,000 crore would be spent under RAY in the next two years across the country. The Centre would provide financial assistance to states to assign property rights to slum dwellers for provision of shelter and basic civic and social services for slum re-development and for creation of affordable housing stock under the scheme.

KOCHI: The draft Master Plan for Kochi city, prepared by the Department of Town and Country Planning, Government of Kerala, will focus on the overall development of the transport sector of the city. A detailed presentation of the Master Plan was made before the Corporation Councilors here at the Council Hall the other day.

The major aim of the presentation was to clear the doubts of the councilors and to introduce to them the contents of the Master Plan.

“A hard copy of the Master Plan was given to each of the councilors. After studying the copy, the contents of the Master Plan will be discussed in a special council meeting that will be convened soon,” said a top Corporation official. The draft Master Plan mainly consists of development concepts, strategies, proposals and control regulations.� It includes major development issues of Kochi city region, its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat (SWOT) analysis and development concepts and strategies. The Master Plan mainly suggests various transportation proposals for the city.

It says that the operational efficiency of the regional level roads, other than the NH in Kochi City Region, including the Ernakulam-Vaikom Road, Ernakulam-Muvattupuzha Road, Ernakulam-Perumbavoor Road, Fort Kochi-Chellanam Road and Tripunithura-Karimugal road are very poor.

According to the Master Plan, the major reason for the inefficiency are the bottle-necks created by narrow bridges, railway crossings, poor alignment and road geometrics. A proper road network system for the Kochi City Region can be developed by substantial improvement of these roads and incorporating ring roads as links between the radial roads.

The Master Plan also gives focus to the Water Transport network and suggests the introduction of goods-oriented boat services and improvement of existing canal systems. All this will substantially improve the role of waterways for cargo movement. It also suggests the development of the suburban rail network to extend the rail network to unserved areas in the city region, which will bring a considerable change in the existing transport scenario.

The official said that similar presentations will be conducted for the local body authorities of� the 11 surrounding Panchayaths and seven Municipalities. “These Panchayaths and Municipalities also fall in the urban agglomeration area that will be covered in the Master Plan,” he added.

The area included in the Master Plan for the Kochi city region include the 74 divisions under Kochi Corporation, Municipalities- Tripunithura, Aluva, Kalamassery, Eloor, Maradu and Thrikkakkara. The list of Panchayaths include Thiruvankulam, Cheranelloor, Varappuzha, Kadamakkudy, Mulavukadu, Elamkunnappuzha, Njarackal, Kumbalam, Kumbalangi, Chellanam and Vadavukode- Puthenkurishu.

US$60 Million World Bank Credit to Help Build Capacity of Urban Local Bodies

Quote:

Project will Build Capacity of Select Urban Local Bodies for Better Urban Management and Planning

Washington – The World Bank today approved a US$60 million credit for capacity building of select Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), which is expected to improve their skills for better urban management and reduce urban poverty.

The Project is part of Government of India’s (GoIs) larger vision for urban development as envisaged under programs like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) and the Rajiv Awas Yojna (RAY), the GoI’s flagship urban development programs.

Capacity Building for Urban Development Project, approved today by the World Bank Board, will help states and ULBs (at least 20 in the initial phase) improve systems for financial management; urban planning; service delivery and better governance. It will also build the capacity of states and ULBs to recognize and incorporate innovative programs and best practices; diagnose urban poverty; and prepare poverty alleviation strategies in ULBs. This Project will be implemented through both the national urban ministries, viz. Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

Today, India has an urban population of about 300 million which is expected to more than double by 2030 to nearly 600 million. The Government of India, state and city governments have introduced and are implementing a number of policies, programs and schemes to provide adequate public services and infrastructure, create opportunities for economic development and ensure that urbanization is environmentally sustainable. Some of the areas that require focus from ULBs are water supply and sanitation, urban transportation, environment, affordable housing and the development of the capacity of ULBs to function successfully in a decentralized environment.

Building capacity of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)

Today Indian ULBs are attracting millions of people and are centers of economic growth. Yet they are battling several challenges to ensure maximum economic benefits from such urbanization. In many cases ULBs do not have the financial and technical capacity to bring about significant improvements in urban service delivery. This Project will work with the ULBs to improve their budgeting and project planning; provide better management of expenditure; accrual accounting; and pro-poor planning approaches amongst several other initiatives.

Given the rapid urbanization, Indian ULBs need large investments on infrastructure for service delivery. However, few Indian ULBs are creditworthy to access capital markets for funds. Most ULBs rely on intergovernmental transfers, and borrowings from government owned financial institutions.

“One of India’s key challenge and one that is critical for India’s economic growth are to meet the needs of a fast growing urban population. Well functioning ULBs is a first step to achieving this,” said Mr Roberto Zagha, World Bank Country Director for India. “This Project will help link worldwide experiences in the area of urban development directly with the Government’s flagship programs for urban development.”

Urban challenges

While the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1993 gives urban local bodies an independent status within the Constitution, they face several challenges. “While ULBs generally have a good understanding of the need to introduce reforms, many would benefit from capacity enhancement to prepare a credible step by step implementation plan. Many of them need a comprehensive package of assistance covering both urban management and poverty reduction. Others, particularly in large urban areas, need more targeted assistance, e.g. in revenue management, capital budgeting or tariff design,” said Songsu Choi, Project Team Leader and Lead Urban Economist, World Bank.

Through this Project, the GOI will set up a Challenge Fund. This Fund will recognize innovative practices by ULBs on urban poverty alleviation. It will also constitute a network of practitioners. The network will include government officials from select ULBs, academics and other actors active in the area of urban poverty alleviation both nationally and internationally. It will also serve as a platform for peer-to-peer learning.

The credit is from the International Development Association (IDA) – the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm – the Credit is on IDA terms with a maturity of 25 years, including a 5 year grace period.

SURAT: The diamond city's glitter has been noticed by the world. Surat ranks fourth in a global study of fastest developing cities conducted by The City Mayors Foundation, an international think tank on urban affairs.

Ghaziabad stands at number two after Beihai in Southern China, which has the stupendous average annual growth rate of 10.58 per cent for 2006 to 2020. Ghaziabad's growth rate is given as 5.20 per cent. The City Mayors Foundation went by assumed annual growth rates for cities and urban areas between 2006 and 2020 based on past growth/decline and forecasts by international and national statistics organizations.

Three other Gujarat cities also figure in the top 100; Rajkot placed at 22 , Ahmedabad at 73 and Vadodara at 86. While the average annual growth rate for Surat is 4.99 per cent, that for Rajkot is 3.63 per cent, Ahmedabad (2.73 per cent) and Vadodara (2.55 per cent).

GREATER NOIDA: On the eastern fringes of teeming New Delhi, construction sites criss-cross vast tracts of cleared farmland in the city of Greater Noida as a stampede of developers rush to build cheaper, suburban apartments for India's swelling urban middle class.

But this is India, a nation struggling to modernise, and the building boom has become entangled in a lot of the same problems that have often held back the breakneck growth of Asia's third largest economy: corruption, political meddling, haphazard development planning, and a shifting legal landscape.

Greater Noida's land woes are also a microcosm of a broader dilemma facing India: balancing the livelihoods of villagers with the need to maintain economic growth, revamp shoddy infrastructure and acquire enough land to build mass housing for urban dwellers.

Like in many other parts of India, the development projects in Greater Noida have collided head-on with legal challenges by farmers, and some have succeeded in halting multi-billion dollar projects and regaining land acquired years ago.

Greater Noida is part of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, and while acquiring the land, the state government invoked so-called "urgency" clauses which allow it to buy the land swiftly and in bulk from the villagers, as long as it would be used for infrastructure or industrial projects.

Urgency clauses are contentious at best, and the Uttar Pradesh government made matters worse by selling the land to real estate developers, who would have likely paid more to the villagers than the state did.

Scores of villages are now embroiled in land disputes, putting at risk at least 50,000 apartments, developers in Noida say. In addition to the legal petitions, farmers are digging up roads and staging marathon vigils to block projects.

"We will become a stronger force with the support of more villagers and claim what is ours," said Surender Nagar from Bisrakh village, who won a court case to recover 746 hectares (nearly 2,000 acres).

Rajesh Kumar, 38, also won a court case to recover his 156 hectares of land in Sabheri, a village ringed by building sites, many of which have been silenced by court orders.

"The most important demand by us farmers is to get our land back so we can regain our source of livelihood," he said, his spectacles covered by construction dust.

Paromita's book is the outcome of an extensive study of 30 small towns spread over Rajasthan, Odisha (Orissa), Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar. Though it opens with the lofty question “Will India miss the global bus?”, the focus is on making some sense of financial resources of the small towns. This is a useful contribution, considering that not much data are available on the subject and, worse, that precious little has come out by way of an analytical study. But the book does not address the role the small towns play in India's urbanisation or the question of how they relate to the urban morphology of the country.

With municipal finances as the central theme, Paromita discusses how the civic bodies of small towns generate resources and how effective are they in spending the money. On the 74th Constitution Amendment, the author rightly concludes that, in spite of the statute change, the functional domain of the urban local bodies remains grey and that the linkage between that domain and the fiscal situation defies clarity.

Contrast

The chapter on the State Finance Commissions (SFCs), which takes a look at their composition, the scope of their reports and the fate of their recommendations, clearly brings out the striking contrast in the functioning of the SFCs and the Central Finance Commissions, thanks to the formers' weaknesses and deficiencies. Particularly useful is the discussion on the recommendations of the 12th Finance Commission on improving the working of the SFCs. What the more recent 13th Commission has said about the local bodies was obviously not available when the book came to be written.

The handicaps the smaller municipal bodies suffer right from their ‘birth' are dealt with elaborately. The revenue-expenditure data of these local bodies make a dismal reading. Going by the figures, the average revenue of the towns covered in the study was Rs. 200 per capita, while the money spent on establishment alone was around Rs. 250 per capita. The author argues that small towns were really a drag on the financial health of municipalities at the national level.

There is also a detailed discussion on the Government of India's flagship programme, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Although the so-called reform agenda under the Mission relates to the big towns, the components are the same for the small towns as well. As part of the urban renewal effort, a special programme has been in operation for a long time, going by the name Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns (IDSMT). Now this is being continued, with some changes in its nomenclature, as part of the JNNURM. Sadly, the book makes no attempt to analyse the impact of the IDSMT on small town's functions or finances.

In the end, the reader is confronted with a basic question. If the financial health of India's small towns is so pathetic, is there a need at all to keep them alive under an elaborate municipal shell? The 2011 census identified as many as 2,532 settlements that fulfilled the demographic and other criteria to qualify as ‘Census Towns'. Which, among them, are in the periphery of ‘cities' and which are the ones that have moved from the ‘rural' to ‘urban' category will be known when reports based on disaggregated census data are made available.

De-notification

There is no particular virtue in claiming that India has a large number of towns. Given the fervour and passion with which such statements as ‘India lives in villages' and ‘India is rural' are made in political and societal arenas — and repeated in the manner of a religious incantation — perhaps one should consider de-notifying the ‘small towns' and bringing them into the fold of the ‘panchayats.' This way, they would get at least enough resources to keep them going, thanks to the comparatively liberal devolution of funds under the Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Ministries. Paromita's book, one hopes, will provoke some thinking in this regard.

MUMBAI: Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has taken serious cognizance of the deteriorating condition of roads in the metropolis, after a series of reports in The Times of India highlighted the inconvenience faced by Mumbaikars as well as the huge waste of public money.

"It's a serious matter. Major roads in the state's capital are either full of potholes or they are in very bad shape for some other reason. It's not an acceptable situation. I have called a meeting with municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar and experts from IIT to discuss the quality of roads. If it is found that there was dereliction of duty at any level , we will not hesitate to take stern action against erring contractors and officials," Chavan told TOI.

An engineer-turnedpolitician , Chavan said authorities would look into whether substandard materials were used to construct roads and repair potholes. "We will take the opinion of experts from IIT on the construction of high-quality and all-weather roads. In a city like Mumbai, we can't accept such bad roads,'' Chavan said.

When asked if he would ask Kumar to cancel contracts given to a section of contractors, Chavan said it would be too early to take stringent action. "We will have to obtain the opinion of experts on the quality of roads and then fix the responsibility . Of course, if it is found that there were serious irregularities when contracts were awarded, I will step in and take strict action against the erring contractors and officials," he said.

A senior Congress minister told TOI that if there were any doubts about irregularities involved in awarding the recent Rs 550-crore BMC tender to nine firms, then Kumar had the power to cancel the contract. "In 1988, when S S Tinaikar was the municipal commissioner and specific irregularities were brought to his notice by a senior corporator, he had immediately revoked the entire contract. In the present case too, it is for Kumar to take a decision," he said.

The minister said it is high time that Kumar fixes responsibility for the mess in the BMC, particularly due to the large number of potholes and terrible condition of roads. "Kumar has penalized small contractors. He must fix the responsibility not only on engineers, but also the IAS officers in charge of maintaining roads and keeping Mumbai pothole-free," he said.

The minister said it is time for the government to consider the strength of the IAS officers in the BMC. "We have five IAS officers, including the commissioner. None of them is either an urban planner or an expert in urban infrastructure. Every two years, we have a new commissioner. As a result , there is a lack of continuity in planning," he said

The India Urban Conference (IUC) is a series of events designed to raise the salience of urban challenges and opportunities in the ongoing debate on India's development. It creates a wide multi-stakeholder and cross-regional platform that situates India's urban transformation in the context of current governance, economic, socio-political, ecological and cultural trajectories and consequent choices of development pathways. The IUC seeks to create an open-frame 'space' for a multi-level dialogue on applied research to inform policy, practice and civil society action.

Urban planning enthusiasts are welcome to attend the conference

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The Minister of State for Urban Development, Shri Saugata Roy informed the Lok Sabha today that the Ministry of Urban Development is running a pilot scheme for Infrastructure Development in satellite town around mega-cities. The pilot scheme supports development of infrastructure facilities related to Solid Waste Management, Water Supply and Sewerage in the selected towns to channelize their future growth and ameliorate pressure on mega-cities. It also provides for implementation of reforms such as e-governance, property tax, double entry accounting, creation of barrier free built environment and energy & water audit.

BS Reporter / Chennai/ Bangalore August 18, 2011, 0:42 IST
India’s urbanisation has become an opportunity to address the challenges of poverty, inclusion, sustainability and deepening democracy. But, dealing with these challenges requires a multi-disciplinary approach and needs inputs of a whole lot of experts from many disciplines.

Hence, the Indian Institute Human Settlement (IIHS), Janaagraha and the Yale University have come together to deliberate on the problems facing the country on Wednesday.

At a time when the absolute number of the urban population is increasing, the number of urban poor is also on the rise. Mahatma Gandhi had said, “India lives in the villages.” But, over time, the proportion of the urban population has been increasing faster and so has been the problems stemming from the lack of infrastructure carrying capacity and stress on resources. This has meant the need to strengthen the rural and urban connection.
But, the lack of aggregated primary data has been a hurdle to being able to deal with many of the issues. “Responding to the challenges and opportunities of urbanisation will require massive policy changes,” said Aromar Revi, Director of IIHS. This will require leadership from the Union government as well as state governments across the country, he added.

IIHS, Janaagraha, and the South Asian Studies Council at Yale on Wednesday announced the launch of the ‘India Urban Conference (IUC 2011): Evidence and Experience’. The conference brings to the forefront key challenges that India faces at the city, state and central levels in addressing urbanisation. The conference has initiated a multi-stakeholder dialogue on achieving inclusive and sustainable urban development. It will also create a platform for India’s youth to help shape India’s urban future through ‘san-kranti’: a nationwide student challenge. This initiative seeks to support and enable informed policy making and promote social action, by opening up a dialogue between stakeholders at the city, state and central levels on these themes.

The conference series opened at Yale University, New Haven, USA in April 2011. This first IUC 2011 conference brought together leading international scholars of South Asia and was titled ‘Urban India: Historical Processes and Contemporary Experience’. The second IUC 2011 conference, to be held in Mysore from 17th to 21st November 2011, is a mega event which aims to bring together nearly 1,000 urban stakeholders, inclusive of policy makers, academics, students, civil society and practitioners, and industry stakeholders. The conference series will close with a policy conference in Delhi on November 22, 2011, which will open up a debate on reframing India’s urban policy agenda in the run up to the development of the XII Plan.

The IUC 2011 will use both evidence and experience from cities and sites of innovation, and interrogate eight broad themes, i.e. ‘Land and Infrastructure’, ‘Urban Water’, ‘Urban Education’, ‘Urban Health’, ‘City in Public Culture’, ‘Urban Governance and Citizenship’, ‘Financial Inclusion and the Urban Economy’ and ‘Urban Planning’.

The key goal of transport projects under the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) is “moving people not vehicles”. As transport projects receiving assistance under JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission) are required to confirm to NUTP, they need to be people-centric. This implies investment priorities favouring public transport and non-motorised transport (NMT).

To plan transport infrastructure, robust forecasts of the travel demand and responses of travel demand to changes in the transport system characteristics and parameters are needed.

Such robust forecasts in turn require reliable, consistent, timely and appropriately disaggregated data which can then be analysed using various transport planning and modelling techniques.

In general, data gaps could arise due to lack of collection efforts from the agencies, or from insufficient appreciation of the importance of the available data for planning process and decisions.

Even if there is existing data, the inability to maintain or utilise this in the best way in policymaking constitutes a gap. Thus, a lot of existing data which should be used for making policy decisions is either not utilised or is utilised in inappropriate ways.

For transport planning, data concerning travel characteristics, preferences, and behaviour (eg. responsiveness to price and income of a particular mode of transport such as personal transport or public transport) are essential.

For Indian cities, planning for transport projects under JNNURM is severely constrained by various data gaps. These gaps include spatial distribution of job opportunities, disaggregated by gender, occupation, age etc; home-workplace travel behaviour and preferences; shopping and leisure travel patterns; freight related data; and a good quality mapping of existing infrastructure.

Another major constraint concerns the approach used for planning transport projects. The most common approach used is the trip-based approach, which uses trips between two points to project travel demand, and treats separate trips independently. This approach gives insufficient weight to individual’s behaviour over space and time, and therefore to interdependence of trips.

A trip from home to office including a movie at the theatre can be completed either by coming home first, and then a separate trip to the theatre, or by going to the theatre directly from office, which of these modes is used may depend on several variables, including options for public transit, parking charges, etc.

Recognising such interdependence is essential when the goal of transport policy is to move individuals. Complex behavioural responses of individuals to demand management policies cannot be properly modelled by focusing on individual trips.

The main limitations of the current methods (and models) to project transport demand and JNNURM can be summarised as follows:

* The models do not reflect people recalling some trips they undertook and many short trips that people forget. The models also don’t capture adequate information on the purpose and interdependence of trips and the factors impacting the demand and preference for travel.
* The calibration of these models to fit the community or region is done by existing data such as population density and growth, occupational structure and household incomes. While trip-related and individual level data such as vehicle ownership, cost of travel and trip lengths are obtained by household surveys, most socio economic and demographic data comes from existing sources.
* Occupational structure and population growth are based on decennial census which is not truly reflective of the recent changes in socio-economic and demographic profile of a region. As a result, significant data gaps arise. The dynamic nature of the Indian economic and social change, shifting geographical location of economic activities and consequent internal migration and rapid urbanisation and constraints in transport planning due to lack of recent data addthese gaps.
* Data inadequacy is the lack of enough disaggregation in current household travel data for modelling separate market segments.
* Origin-destination data on freight movement and private sector passenger transport is hardly available.
* Household surveys do not sufficiently permit analysis of the impact of improvements in non-motorised transport on travel conditions.
* For better transport planning, under the JNNURM, there are several measures designed to address data gaps and other limitations that merit consideration.
* Questionnaire surveys and diaries, which are widely used internationally for collecting data required for transport planning, need to be used more widely. The frequency and choice of days for maintaining diaries should conform to standards that ensure minimal underreporting of trips and less respondent burden. Transport studies and data collection efforts should be used for generating socio-economic data which are recent and policy relevant.
* Available technologies could be used more strategically and extensively for collecting travel flow and behaviour data on the roads for better accuracy and timeliness. GIS (geographic information system) techniques could be considered for collecting information on institutional and location characteristics such as opening hours and features of transport modes which impact on the choice of activities and travel.
* Automated pedestrian counters can be a useful way for collecting pedestrian-related information for continuous and heterogeneous traffic. These counters will allow planners to collect accurate pedestrian flow data and pedestrian characteristics (age, gender mix, etc). Such data on pedestrian volumes and their behaviour can help in evaluating the impacts of investments in pedestrian infrastructure and modelling pedestrian flows.
* The conventional modelling uses macro level aggregates of area locations for calculating trip generation and distribution. Use of GPS (global positioning system) technology to collect disaggregated data with spatial and temporal components could be useful for understanding travel behaviour and therefore transport planning.
* l The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MSPI) has suggested that to improve freight data collection more coordinated approach to log books of the truck operators and to various check-posts are to be considered. Regular updating of databases on transport infrastructure/facilities in urban areas is also needed
* Urgency needs to be exhibited in establishing and in the smooth functioning of Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities. It can help integrate transport service planning and provision at city level, and serve as a single agency overseeing all the modes of transport. It can help minimise multiplicity of departments/ agencies involved in transport planning, provision and regulation.
* As India experiences rapid urbanisation, and as transport needs grow, better transport planning, including under JNNURM, has become essential. In addition to the measures suggested above, others such as flexible work timings, telecommuting, congestion pricing, better integration of urban amenities and services to minimise motorised and public transport merit consideration.

Mukul Asher is professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
National University of Singapore (sppasher@nus.edu.sg) and Tarun Sharma is an independent urban policy consultant

Transport experts say the exponential growth of cars in Mumbai (nearly doubling over the last two decades) has skewed policies unfairly in favour of easing traffic—with little consideration for pedestrians . This bucks the global trend where cities, particularly in Europe, are cutting out vehicles and embracing walkers.

Mumbai road kill

Pavements are shrinking though 44% of citizens walk some distance to work Nearly 78% of road fatalities are pedestrians. Bikers and three-wheelers are next at risk, accounting for 7% and 4% of fatalities There are 220 pedestrians per car in India compared to 2-3 per car in North America and Europe. It's 280 in China Pavements in Worli measured only 0 to 3 metres, whereas minimum width required is 2.5 to 4 metres (Source: World Bank, Neeri & BMC)

Stuck in a traffic jam at peak hour? Certain drivers in the City have devised a creative solution to this routine problem – when the traffic on the road refuses to move, hop on to the pavement instead. In fact, witnessing motor bikes and occasionally even cars driving across short stretches of the sidewalk has become distressingly common.

Metrolife speaks to a few commuters in the City to find out about their take on the issue.
Mohan Kumar, a retired businessman, obviously feels very strongly about this
subject.

“The way people drive in this City can make life extremely difficult for pedestrians. They drive onto pavements and refuse to stop if they see people walking in front of them. As a senior citizen, I can tell you that these drivers have no consideration whatsoever for the old,” he says. Chandrashekar, a student who has just completed his BE, agrees that this problem has become rampant. “I don’t own a vehicle myself, so I end up walking a lot.

I’ve noticed that a lot of drivers get onto pavements, especially in crowded areas like MG Road. It’s a huge headache for pedestrians, who have to navigate their way even on the sidewalks,” he complains.

Pedestrian infrastructure should may include CCTV cameras to monitor footpath where frequent violations takes place. Fences, small pillar barricades may be other ways. Please suggest more solutions.

Other possible solutions:

*Increase the kerb height,such that vehicles will not be able to climb up

*In case of Residential layouts where footpath gets broken to facilitate vehicle movement in and out of the homes,below is a possible solution-Put up barriers to facilitate just pedestrians and thereby avoiding vehicles crossing over

Copyright Chetanv

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The barriers have to be wide enough to allow wheel chairs through. Also, by increasing the curb height, you are going to make it even more harder for seniors to walk. I think the recommendation is around 8-9 inches. A lot of sidewalks/footpaths also allow for ramps to allow wheelchair access. But if we do that in India, motor cycles will always be on the footpath and not on the road.

The barriers have to be wide enough to allow wheel chairs through. Also, by increasing the curb height, you are going to make it even more harder for seniors to walk. I think the recommendation is around 8-9 inches. A lot of sidewalks/footpaths also allow for ramps to allow wheelchair access. But if we do that in India, motor cycles will always be on the footpath and not on the road.

You are right...here is something happening in the right direction ,not sure though...

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Fact of the week: ‘What Harvard is to law, Mysuru is to yoga’ Around10,000 foreigners visit the city to learn yoga every year

The barriers have to be wide enough to allow wheel chairs through. Also, by increasing the curb height, you are going to make it even more harder for seniors to walk. I think the recommendation is around 8-9 inches. A lot of sidewalks/footpaths also allow for ramps to allow wheelchair access. But if we do that in India, motor cycles will always be on the footpath and not on the road.

Found an interesting stuff

copyrights CN

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Fact of the week: ‘What Harvard is to law, Mysuru is to yoga’ Around10,000 foreigners visit the city to learn yoga every year